Simple oil change

Simple oil change

So it’s a rainy Saturday in Miami. That means no boating. No beach. No hanging outside.

Instead, it’s a day to get things done and maybe catch a movie at the end of the day.

Well, my 2015 Ford F-150 needs an oil change. Why not pack the laptop and take the truck to the dealer for an oil change.

Simple, right?

I live in a quiet part of Miami called Miami Springs. My nearest Ford dealership is Gus Machado Ford. I’ve had mixed results at this dealership before, but hey, it’s really close by. Let’s give them a chance to succeed.

I head up west 12th avenue in Hialeah and turn into the service area of the dealership. There are 3 vehicles ahead of mine. That doesn’t bother me. I’m expecting this to take a little while. Hence, I brought my laptop.

But, I don’t expect to wait too long to be attended.

After parking the F150, I get out of the truck and start walking around looking for someone with a Ford blue shirt. Nada.

After a couple of minutes, a young lady tells me she’ll be with me in a moment.

So, I patiently wait. She’s disappeared.

Okay, so now I’m looking around for the young lady. She might be helping one of the other customers standing around with their arms crossed.

Nope. She’s not attending another customer. Instead I see her walking out of the pretty nice new Cuban cafe inside the service department bringing out food for what I assume is her and some coworkers.

Meanwhile I tell myself, just wait another minute. Then, I see 3 more cars pull up in a second lane. Now, I’m getting concerned I met get blocked in and not be able to leave if I decide to split the Gus Machado service center.

I look at my watch again. I tell myself, “I can make it to Midway Ford in about 12 minutes in Saturday morning traffic.” Tick tock I look at the clock.

Another minute goes by and the people ahead of my have yet to be attended and the young lady has disappeared again.

Screw it, I tell myself.

I’m wasting time at the Gus Machado Ford service center. The people ahead of me have yet to be attended. How long will it take for them to attend to me?

So I split. Fortunately, I’m not blocked in, but I did have to back into west 12th avenue backwards because there was no room to maneuver around inside the service area parking lot. Yet another car was coming in for service.

So I drive to Midway Ford Miami located on West Flagler about a quarter mile west of the Palmetto. As I pull in, I see a couple of vehicles and I immediately see the blue Ford shirt guys actively attending to customers. After parking the F-150, I walk up to one of the attendants who had just finished with the customer and he tells me he’ll be with me in just a minute. He makes a quick phone call to give the status of a vehicle to a client on the phone and then asks me, “How can I help you?”

Wow. Much better! I tell him I need an oil change for the 2015 Ford F-150. He asks me if I want to rotate my tires. I ask him for a price quote for each. He tells me it’s about $52 for the Works package.

I tell him, “Go for it.”

He warns me that since I don’t have an appointment, it may take about 2 hours to change the oil. I tell him it’s okay. I brought my laptop to get some work done.

He confirms the information on file and takes my keys. The process takes about 5 minutes.

Now, I was prepared to wait for the service on my vehicle. But I was not prepared to wait just to be attended. Heck, I might have waited to be attended if I saw the blue Ford shirt folks at Gus Machado Ford actually working with clients to help them out. But the fact that I only saw one service person at Gus Machado Ford, and the fact that she was more interested in food than her clients, I think I made the right decision to bail and head to Midway Ford.

By comparison, Midway Ford had two Ford service attendants professionally assisting their customers. The staff at Midway Ford was professional in appearance and demeanor.

I’ll let you know how long it actually took for the oil change and overall service of the vehicle, but Midway Ford Service experience this morning is light years ahead of the service I got (or lack thereof) at the Hialeah Gus Machado Ford.

What’s worse is that it pains me to say that of Gus Machado Ford. I’m actually a fan. But I’d be an idiot to stick around that dealership this morning expecting service to get better.